


Partnership or Relationship?

by Merfilly



Category: Birds of Prey (Comic), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Case Fic, F/F, Getting Together, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 10:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4873126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It really shouldn't ride under the Canary's skin that Oracle has been offline for two days. But it does, and as she looks for her missing partner, she starts to suspect why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Partnership or Relationship?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [navaan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/gifts).



**Rolling Thunder Offline**

The time stamp had not changed from the first time Black Canary had checked the laptop her partner had installed in the apartment for her, all secure with Bat-dodges in place to foil people smarter than the Canary. At least, she amended as she tried to distract her own thoughts, smarter than she was with computers.

Sure, it had only been forty-eight hours. Certainly, the Oracle was a woman who had to have a life of her own, especially now that the Canary knew Oracle was none other than Commissioner Jim Gordon's daughter. However, Black Canary was a policeman's daughter and granddaughter. She had noticed the patrols seemed to have stepped up, and the Commish himself hadn't been in the public eye very much for the last few days, even before her partner's last enigmatic message left on the laptop's chat program.

"Why can't you ever say things plainly?" the heroine asked her missing partner, though all that heard her was the empty apartment. Her eyes flicked to that last message, the one above the damning time stamp on the idle message.

_Busy. Stay out of trouble._

What kind of a meaning was Black Canary, aka Dinah Lance, supposed to take from that when trouble was her reputation and livelihood? Well, outside of being a sometimes florist, member of the JSA (and just when had she grown up big enough to fill those boots?), and once in a while Justice League Member?

_Stay out of trouble._

Wait… hadn't Oracle just been chiding her for her methods, pointing out that The Bat (and Dinah could have sworn she heard quote marks to go with the capitalization) didn't always like the way Black Canary operated in Gotham?

Well, it was something to start with. She was just going to have to prove her detective chops and stay under the Bat Radar while she did it. It certainly beat waiting around for Oracle to pop her head back up.

And maybe Oracle was in trouble herself, given the way Black Canary's instincts were simply refusing to let go of the long absence. She knew better than to ignore those warnings, they had saved her too many times.

* * *

Black Canary's nerves were definitely on edge. She had seen Nightwing in the distance, Spoiler from much closer, Robin had spotted her and nodded, while the senior heroine was almost certain Batgirl had been somewhere close by. Just, Batgirl was way too good for Black Canary to spot. At this rate she would be seeing Azrael, Onyx, maybe even the Creeper before the night ended.

What on earth was going on that all the Batty Ones were out, Gotham's finest were cruising the worst neighborhoods, and yet she hadn't spotted Batman or figured out why Oracle hadn't called her in?

"O, you're starting to really worry me," she muttered to herself, keeping in the shadows of a broken air conditioning unit. Her eyes swept the skyline, trying to make certain that none of the other city protectors were visible. Once she was sure of that, she took the fastest way down to the street, intent on hitting a certain clinic where a very determined pacifist doctor kept odd hours and just might know the word on the street.

* * *

After Dr. Thompkins only confirmed things were amiss without adding any detail, Black Canary practiced her breaking and entering skills at one of the outer satellite police stations. Concealing herself was entirely too easy for her peace of mind, but the dispatch and beat officer there were far more focused on the scanner than on any visitors in the crawlspaces. That suited her; she wanted to listen in for a bit, and see if she could see a pattern.

The patrols were calling in frequently, but seemed to be reporting normal, every night trouble, with no true focus. Just when the Canary was thinking she needed to give this up as a bad case of nerves, a patrol car was told not to follow up on a call into a particular neighborhood, none too far from this very satellite station.

"How long we going to let this guy dictate the sitch?" the beat cop groused, but the dispatch operator merely repeated his warning to the patrol car not to enter the neighborhood. Black Canary knew that was where she needed to be, and was willing to bet the Bat wouldn't even yell much, because that neighborhood? It was one she remembered from a long-ago stakeout sitting in her daddy's car, watching for one of his private investigation cases. And she had learned something about it back then that wasn't on any newer maps.

* * *

"You shouldn't—"

"Shove it, Bats. That's my partner in there," Black Canary snapped, now that she had found his perch.

The face didn't change, but something in his stance did. "She had said you should not be involved."

"And then threw me neon signs to get my detective hat on," she told him sweetly. "You don't want to risk your junior partners; it's why I spotted them as far from here as you can get and still be in Gotham. But Nightwing is also outside of the neighborhood; two edged threat?"

"I will never understand why people forget you're the smarter half of your —"

"Please don't bring _him_ up; I'm more than ready to move on past that." Black Canary wondered when she'd decided cutting off Batman was a great idea, but her eyes scanned. "Two threats. She's here, Commish is where Tight-Wing is?" she asked, deliberately using the nickname several ladies on both sides of the fence used for the beautiful boy in blue and black.

"Decided to tackle it that way, since Two-Face would have expected the other way around," Batman conceded. "But it's Firefly in there, and we're certain he's got the building rigged to become an inferno."

"Shame for him that I bet he doesn't know about the old tunnel here, from an abandoned attempt at a subway," Black Canary said sweetly. From the way Batman twitched, she confirmed that he hadn't known. "Dad had a case down here. He followed his target down into it, to get more information. Showed me later, in case I needed to know for some reason. The tunnel has access ladders into most of the old buildings' basements, even though that looked like they were tacked on later."

"Mob turf," Batman said, agreeing to that last. "And you think you can use this to get to him fast enough to avoid setting Old Gotham on fire?"

"Got a tranquilizer dart? Or do you load all of your gimmicks on Batarangs? Granted, I can knock him out from a distance with something heavy," she said, pretending to inspect her nails.

"I'll go with you, to coordinate when it is safe for Nightwing and his backup to move on Two-Face himself," Batman countered. "You get Oracle out; I'll handle Firefly."

For a moment, she balked. She could do both! But then the part of her that had been fretting over Oracle for the last thirty-six of those missing-for-forty-eight hours kicked in. She wanted her partner to be safe and sound, wanted….

She cut that thought off sharply. Getting involved with her partners _hurt_. Besides, Oracle had plenty of hang-ups on Nightwing, if the plushies around the computer had been anything to go by.

"Deal."

* * *

For a big man in armor and a cape, Batman was scarily quiet. That suited Black Canary as she adjusted her eyes to the dim lighting, tracing the sounds in the old building and staying close to him. A quick scout told them both the culprit and victim were in one room, and Dinah felt a surge of pride (as if she had any right! Oracle had been doing this only a few years less than herself!) that Firefly, minus his helmet, had a broken nose and two black eyes. Oracle, on the other hand, merely looked disheveled, and irritated at being contained by having her bound arms behind her, without her chair in sight.

They had to have grabbed her and her dad together, Black Canary realized, as there was nothing in Oracle's clothing indicating she was anything but a civilian. Yet, they had to have known trouble was coming, right? That last message from Oracle had been what made Black Canary focus on the case so strongly, even before she'd known things were amiss, really.

Or maybe it had been the loneliness of not having her partner and friend to bond with. Maybe it was that niggling feeling that this could be something more than just -- 

She bit her lip and focused sharply on needing to get O out of this, instead of the stupid feelings that kept crowding up, the ones that had been plaguing her when the woman was still just a voice in her ear.

She almost missed seeing Batman's move into action, but she was reacting before she processed it anyway. While he worked to get Firefly away from his incendiary controls, she went for Oracle, eyes scanning for any devices or wires on her.

"Miss, I'm here to help you," she remembered to say, before scooping the woman up and pivoting to get her out, back the way she had come. One thing she didn't want was to cause a sniper to shoot one or both of them by bursting out of the building onto the street!

"Can't we stop to get this rope off?" Oracle complained, but Black Canary just shook her head.

"Maybe I enjoy a little bondage with my partners," she quipped, and then cursed her own mouth inside her head. WHY had she said that?!

"Kinky," was all Oracle replied… after an entirely too long moment of silence.

* * *

There had been the obligatory reunion with the Commish, which all the caped crusaders and little birds shied away from. Black Canary had gotten back to her place after dodging the public eye well enough that she thought Batman would be happy, and puttered around in her kitchen.

The laptop dinged for her attention about an hour later, and Black Canary came to see why. Rolling Thunder, aka Oracle, aka Barbara Gordon, had sent an image of pink fuzzy handcuffs, and a single message.

_More comfortable, easier to break out of._

Dinah blinked, stared at the message, then typed back. _All out of those, but I think I have a nice little blindfold to start the party._

She half-expected to get no answer to that, and was half-set to make the necessary 'just kidding' comment when the message popped up.

_Bring it, some ice cream, and we'll talk it over. Tonight, if you're not too tired._

Never one for over-thinking a relationship, Dinah grinned, going to find the blindfold and her keys.

This could be disastrous… or it might be the best thing ever for her.


End file.
